Worlds quietest bombshell.
Examining Armitage as source of Plame leak.

Let me say up front that I have no idea how I’ll conclude as I sit down to write this Op/Ed, I only know that I’m not comfortable with the deafening silence the story has received so far on the “Left”… my Left… the so-called “Liberal Blogosphere”. After mulling the recent news that former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the original source of the Plame leak, over in my head for the past week, someone needs to comment on it. Few have.

I’ll refrain from retelling the entire “Valery Plame/CIA leak controversy” over again. If you are reading this post, I’ll assume you are already familiar with most of the details (if not, go here).

A week ago Sunday (Aug 27), the man at the eye of the storm, long-time Conservative columnist, Bob Novak on NBC’s “Meet the Press” refused to confirm the rumor that former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, Richard Armitage, was in fact Novak’s source for the secret identity of Valery Plame Wilson (see video here). The next day, Armitage finally revealed that he was indeed Novak’s source.

This has created a problem for Progressives like myself that have long believed someone in the Bush Administration… Dick Cheney himself my likely guess… sought out and deliberately leaked this information for the express purpose of discrediting Plame’s husband… Ambassador Joe Wilson… the man that exposed the fact that the “Niger/Iraq/Uranium” claims used by this Administration to scare the country into supporting the invasion of Iraq, was a total lie (the argument being that Plame recommended her “Bush-hating” husband for the job, and therefore, you can’t believe him). Of course, when the source of your “proof” is THIS BAD (see video), it’s no surprise Wilson found that the story was not true.

But here’s the problem… Armitage is not a partisan neocon hack. If you are not familiar with the former Assistant SecState, he is large bald man that looks like a linebacker for the ‘66 Green Bay Packers. He also is not a Neocon, and handed in his resignation along with his boss Colin Powell just days after President Bush’s “reelection“. It throws a serious wrench into the argument that Plame’s covert CIA Agent status was deliberately revealed in order to discredit her husband.

Or does it?

While Armitage inadvertantly revealed this information to Novak, Armitage himself did not uncover it himself. As Assistant SoS, he definitely wasn’t privy to the true identity of our undercover CIA agents, and he didn’t go around seeking the information out because… well for one, he didn’t have the authority, and two, didn’t have an ax to grind.

Now, a lot of (all?) Neo-conservatives have tried to dismiss Ambassador Wilson outright, and the false allegation that “his wife sent him” has typically topped the list of reasons why his report could not be trusted, so there is a VERY tangible benefit for the Bush White House to perpetuate the story, but arguments that Wilson’s findings are fabricated and prove no such thing fall completely flat in light of the fact that NO ONE in this Administration has ever denied that Wilson’s findings were anything but true (see video here).

So what does it mean when it turns out the Bush White House did not ORIGINALLY seek out reporters with the intent of exposing an undercover CIA agent? That is where the “deafening silence” comes in, trying to make sense of the news.

See, the thing is, while the first leak wasn’t commited through malice, the perpetuation of that information was. Making sure that Amb Wilson’s reputation was challenged became a political objective. Realize that while Armitage may not of sought out the identity of Plame, SOMEBODY did, and there can be no “innocent motivation” behind that. Armitage says he learned the information from a memo that was requested by Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff Lewis Libby… the same Libby indicted for Obstruction of Justice by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. And like Armitage, Libby likewise was neither privy to nor had the authority to obtain, the covert identity of a CIA agent. It doesn’t take Uri Geller fo figure out why Libby added the information to the memo intended for Armitage, or to figure out who told Libby (think “executive privlegde”, “ax to grind” and “frequent secret trips to CIA headquarters”).

Now, no good reporter (and Novak certainly qualifies as a “no good reporter”) would report anything without a second source, and Novak has revealed that his “confirming source” was President Bush’s own Chief of Staff Karl Rove. One could just envision the evil smirk that must have pursed Rove’s lips upon receiving the call from Bob Novak and seeing the opportunity to take advantage of the leaked information. Also, who told Rove, and why? I think we all know the answer to that one (at least the second part anyway).

Had the original source of the leak of turned out to be Karl Rove or Dick Cheney, the Left-leaning blog-o-sphere would of had a field day, calling for their head on a platter. Instead, news that it was Armitage has the Right-leaning blog-o-sphere enjoying a field day of it’s own, reveling in an imagined vindication of the Bush Administration against those that dared suggest it did anything wrong.

As for me, the Bush Administration or Neo-Conservative bloggers need not hold their breath waiting for an apology from me for thinking the worst of them. Nothing in the Armitage revelation counters that.

Before we go, let me leave you with this quote from Groucho Marx: “Maresy-doh and Dozy-doh and little lamsee-divy“. Translation: “Mares eat oats, and doe’s eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy”… two ways of saying the exact same thing but only one of them makes any sense.

This entry was posted on September 4, 2006 at 12:11 am and is filed under Political News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.